Strange Fruit

Irvin Mayfiled's STRANGE FRUIT is a nine-moement, 78-minute epic that tells the story of an interracial couple who falls in love in 1920 Louisiana. Mayfield utilized the 17-member New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the 80-voice Dillard University choir for this stirring look at life in the Deep South. The narrative (perfomed by actor Wendell Pierce) is followed by choral arrangements and lyric solos combining elemetns of traditional New Orleans jazz, spirituals, blues and Afro-Cuban music for this haunting opus. STRANGE FRUIT was recorded in April, 2004.